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Shoot the Moon
"Shoot the Moon" is the twelfth and final episode of Season 4. It premiered August 31, 2014. Plot Synopsis With the weight of humanity’s survival on Tom and Lexi’s shoulders, they must defeat Tom’s mortal enemy and find a way to destroy the omnipotent Espheni Power Core. Meanwhile, a new, terrifying Espheni Bomb is dropped onto Chinatown, immobilizing the 2nd Mass and preparing them for Human Skitterizaton. Plot Tom reads a book on the Beamer as it flies to the Moon while Anne walks the perimeter, Hal watches the Espheni power core through Volm binoculars and Daniel Weaver helps Matt practice knife-throwing in case he ever loses his gun. At the same time, Dingaan leads a recon team but they are attacked by creatures that overwhelm the team. Only Dingaan escapes to warn the 2nd Mass. While practicing his knife-throwing, Matt informs Weaver of Hal giving Tom the Volm poison which surprises him as Weaver didn't know. Hal and Ben also grow worried as the green flashes from the Moon now come every ten seconds rather than every sixty and Tom and Lexi should've already reached the power core. The two decide to keep their worries to themselves, knowing that if an attack comes, it will likely be soon. On the Beamer, Tom continues to read until Lexi announces that the ship's autopilot has locked onto the power core's homing beacon and they are heading straight to it. Knowing its almost time, Tom goes to check the bombs only to find them destroyed. Tom realizes that the temperature change from the breach in the hull caused the bomb casings to crack and Lexi explains that when they were in the cocoon, she had to shut off life support to conserve power. Tom is pissed and Lexi asks if he still doesn't trust her, but while Tom tells Lexi he does trust her, they still need a way to destroy the power core and their bombs are gone. Remembering Lexi's powers, he turns to her to destroy the power core, but she tells him that her powers work on her manipulating the natural forces around her such as gravity. In the vacuum of space, that won't work and even the Moon's gravity won't give her the power boost she needs. Noticing they are close to the power core, Tom looks out the window at it and Lexi explains that its a mining platform, refinery and energy plant all in one. The mining part extracts Hellium 3 from the rocks on the Moon which is then converted into energy at the refinery and sent to the power station where its beamed to Earth as wireless electricity to power everything. Lexi tells Tom that its no accident that the Espheni chose to invade Earth: they needed a life-sustaining planet close to Hellium rich moon. Tom remembers what Scorch told him about there being a greater threat than the Espheni that the humans couldn't comprehend, but their Beamer suddenly starts to go off course. Lexi detects that something is overriding their homing beacon and Tom realizes that the Espheni are on to them. Sure enough, a much more massive Beamer appears and catches theirs in a tractor beam, forcing them to dock. Tom grabs his gun and as the airlock opens, boards the enemy ship with Lexi. In Chinatown, Anne stands guard and watches the Moon, begging Tom to blow the power core and come home to her. Dingaan tells his story to a group including Weaver, Ben, Hal, Pope, Maggie and Elise, explaining that his recon team had found an abandoned militia camp surrounded in fog before Dingaan realized there were people with creatures on their chests that was transforming them. There were also seemingly glued to the ground and Dingaan wasn't able to save them, eventually fleeing. Pope realizes that this was humans being Skitterized while Ben recalls that he saw something similar while with Lexi and knows that the process must've advanced far enough now that the Espheni don't need to drag people off to factories anymore but can simply drop their creatures into camps. As everyone patrols, Dingaan and Pope spot a Beamer incoming and while Dingaan tells Pope to run, Pope decides to fight instead. The Beamer drops an Espheni Farm which releases the fog and creatures seen by Dingaan. While staring in shock, Elise gets trapped by the fog and one of the creatures lands on her. She screams for a short time and then her eyes turn black and black veins start to run down her face as she starts to be Skitterized. Pope and Dingaan witness this and flee after a moment of shock. Hal, Maggie and Ben flee into a garage where Maggie climbs up on top of an old bus, but Hal and Ben, Hal halfway across the room, gets trapped in the fog. Weaver and Matt flee into a room where they try to barricade themselves, but the fog enters through pipes on the walls. On board the enemy ship, Tom and Lexi are confronted by Mira who asks them if they thought they could steal an Espheni ship and they wouldn't know about it. Tom realizes Mira is now harnessed and its revealed that she is being used as a mouthpiece for Scorch. Tom points his gun at Scorch and tells the Overlord not to touch Lexi, but Scorch knocks him to the ground and Lexi's necklace starts glowing, causing Lexi to gasp for breath. Through Mira, Scorch smugly tells Tom that they don't have to touch Lexi. In Chinatown, Pope and Dingaan climb up on a stack of pallets but fall and end up trapped in the fog. Pope desperately calls out to Anne for help while Anne is annoyed as Pope will just draw the creatures attention. Anne then finds fog coming at her from all directions. In the building, Matt is stuck on the floor while Weaver is stuck against the wall near an open window. As Matt panics about the situation, a creature makes its way in and goes for Matt, but he is able to kill it his new knife-throwing skills with Weaver's encouragement. On the Beamer, Mira explains that the necklace the Monk gave Lexi doesn't mean peace but control and as Tom begs Scorch not to hurt Lexi because of him, he gives Mira a glowing stone to burn Lexi's face with. As Mira approached Lexi's face, Lexi told Scorch that she had done what she did to deliver Tom to him and asks if he would really kill the best weapon he has to prove he's stronger than Tom. Hal and Ben remain trapped on the garage floor while trying to hold off the creatures, Hal only armed with a pistol due to losing his machine gun earlier. Using her new spike abilities, Maggie is able to pull Ben out of the fog and they plan how to rescue Hal together who has a massive swarm of the creatures coming through the door at him. Pope and Dingaan remain trapped in the fog with Pope yelling for Anne not to go into the fog to Dingaan's annoyance. Pope explains that Anne was a sentry at the edge of camp so he hopes she didn't get caught while Dingaan berates him for getting them into the mess by running towards the Beamer. As the two argue, one of the creatures latches onto Dingaan and pulls him away while Pope yells after him. Surrounded by fog, Anne lights a flare and discovers that fire burns away the fog. As Matt begins to despair, Weaver orders him to chant "the fight isn't over till its over" to keep his spirits up and hearing that, Anne grabs a flamethrower and uses it to make her way towards Matt and Weaver to rescue them. Maggie and Ben create a harness to rescue Hal and tell him to trust them which he sarcastically comments on given Ben's trustworthiness lately. As resistance fighters fall to the creatures nearby, Dingaan is dragged near Pope who notices the tentacle connecting the creature to the farm which starts sending the transforming fluid through it. Pope manages to grab the tentacle and bites it in half, preventing Dingaan from being Skiterized and leaving Pope disgusted by what he did. On the Beamer, Lexi insists that she's Espheni and the humans had tried to kill her. Mira backs off and gives the glowing stone to Scorch who tells Tom that he's going to burn Lexi like Tom burned him. As Lexi protests, Scorch burns a line down her face. Suddenly Scorch rears back in pain as Tom injects him with most of the Volm poison. Screaming, Scorch staggers around the room before collapsing near the control console. As Scorch reaches for a wire beneath it, Tom injects the last of the poison into Scorch's right eye, killing him. Mira flees, but unnoticed by either Tom or Lexi, Scorch manages to break one of the control wires before he dies and his body shrivels up. Tom realizes they lost a lot of time and suggests that since they have no bomb anymore, they use Scorch's ship as the bomb. He asks Lexi if she can set the ship on a collision course with the power core and she determines that she can. Lexi orders him back aboard their own ship, telling him he needs to destroy the wires inside a panel in the airlock to release their Beamer from the tractor beam of Scorch's ship. Lexi tells him to then fire up their Beamer while she prepares Scorch's ship. When Tom hesitates, Lexi tells him the only way to win is to divide and conquer and he has to trust her. Tom reluctantly leaves Lexi alone, but she discovers the destroyed wire and horrified, tells Scorch's corpse that he won afterall. However, she discovers she can still control the ship and says that Scorch hasn't won and she can still complete the mission but has to say goodbye first. Cochise attempts to contact his father while Shaq believes it to be pointless. Cochise finds that his father is close and calls out to him, eventually dropping the more formal Father for the more human Dad. Finally, Waschak-cha'ab responds and Cochise tells him that they need his help and Cochise has something to tell him about the Earth's Moon. As Maggie and Ben prepare to rescue him, Hal is down to pistol-whipping the creatures. Finally, Maggie and Ben throw their harness around him and yank him across the room into the side of the bus with their combined strength. They then pull him on top of the bus and Hal comments on how well Maggie and Ben are working together, causing them to share a look. Matt and Weaver continue to chant as the room is filled with fog and creatures and to their surprise, they are rescued by Anne. When Weaver asks if she can use a flamethrower, Anne tells him there's a lot he doesn't know about her and kills the creatures and burns away the fog, releasing Matt and Weaver. However, one of the creatures comes through an open window next to Weaver and latches on to his chest. Anne tries to burn it, but the flamethrower is out of fuel and when she drops it, she gets stuck in the returned fog herself. Before the transforming fluid can reach him, Weaver, shuts the window on the tentacle, stopping the flow and continues to hold the window down. On the Beamer, Tom shoots the wires inside the panel Lexi told him to and reboards their original Beamer. Lexi contacts him to tell Tom he destroyed the tractor beam's security and she can now release it, but is staying behind. Lexi explains that Scorch destroyed his ship's autopilot before he died but Lexi can still pilot it manually into the power core. Lexi orders Tom to touch the cocoon they had been in, telling him they don't have much time. When Tom touches the cocoon, Lexi telepathically links to him through it and they appear in a vision of a deserted Chinatown. Tom tries to order Lexi not to sacrifice herself, but she tells him that while she'd like to stick around long enough for her to do what he tells her to do, there's no time. When Tom blames himself for asking for Lexi's help, she tells him he had no choice as if they don't destroy the power core, everything and everyone he loves will be lost. Tom tells her "not everyone" and Lexi tells him she has programed Tom's Beamer to return to Earth and he has just enough life-support left to make it, but has to go now. Lexi thanks Tom for showing her what it is to be a human being and to love. Lexi tells Tom "goodbye, daddy" before they hug one last time. Lexi then cuts the connection, returning Tom's mind to the Beamer. As Tom watches on screen, Lexi disconnects the ship and begins her attack run on the Moon. However, alarms start to go off in Tom's ship and he notices a squadron of Beamers approaching him. To Tom's horror, he realizes that Scorch called for backup before Tom killed him. Pope and Dingaan continue to lie in the fog and Pope realizes they're about to die. After he says a sarcastic goodbye, a creature crawls over his legs but before it can attach itself to him, its suddenly shot. To Pope's shock, the shooter was Sara who had returned in time to save him. With Pope's guidance, Sara is able to shoot the creature off of Dingann's chest and she explains she had hotwired a four-wheel drive truck which allowed her to make it through the fog. After she expects a thank you, Pope rants about why he shouldn't until Sara shoots another creature that goes after him which causes him to give an immediate thank you. In the room with Matt and Anne, Weaver continues to hold the window shut, but is exhausted and can't keep it up much longer. He expresses his admiration for Anne and Matt reminds him that "its not over till its over." Weaver rallies, but is clearly near the end of his strength. On top of the bus, Ben, Hal and Maggie discuss what will happen when Tom destroys the power core to the creatures. While Maggie is skeptical that destroying the power core will stop them, Ben suggests that it will stop whatever's generating the fog and give them a fighting chance. As they talk, the creatures start climbing the side of the bus to their horror. In space, the Espheni Beamer squadron closes in on Tom's defenseless ship when suddenly they are hit by cannon fire that destroys a few of them. To Tom's surprise and relief Waschak-cha'ab contacts him, having returned in time to help. Waschak-cha'ab promises to get Tom out of danger before cutting the connection. As Tom watches, the Volm battleship destroys the Beamer squadron. Nearing the power core, Lexi turns her flight into a suicide run, folding her hands as she flies the ship. Lexi crashes Scorch's ship into the power core, destroying it in a massive explosion visible from Earth. Watching on the Beamer's screen, Tom sees the destruction of Lexi's ship and the power core and sadly comments "you did it baby." However, the shockwave from the blast sends Tom's Beamer spinning out of control into deep space and Tom is unable to control it nor is Waschak-cha'ab able to reach him. Tom later sits in his Beamer reading his book and then hugs himself as the temperature drops. The next morning, Anne wakes to find the fog gone and the creatures dead. To her relief, Weaver is alright and he and Matt declare that "its over." Ben, Maggie and Hal emerge from the garage, having survived as well and see part of the Moon turned green. They realize that Tom destroyed the power core and that everyone who is trapped in an Espheni Ghetto and not Skiterized yet has been freed. They reunite with Anne, Weaver, and Matt and Anthony, who had been missing with his team since before the attack, returns and tells them he made it but a lot of others didn't. Everyone celebrate as they look up to the Moon and note that Tom definitely blew the hell out of something. Cochise arrives and reports that the greater Volm have returned and that the power core was destroyed, but that his father lost Tom. While the Volm will search for Tom, it will be a very difficult search and they are unlikely to find him. Matt is upset by this, but Weaver reminds him that Tom won't give up and Anne believes he will find his way home. Hal reminds everyone that the power core is now destroyed and with it, the Espheni war machine. The humans can now take the fight to the Espheni and finish what Tom started. Everyone agrees and prepares to win the war. Tom wakes in what appears to be the bedroom of his old house, but finds a picture of him and his family to be holographic. Suddenly someone starts using old radio broadcasts to communicate with him and when Tom opens the bedroom curtains, he finds out that he's on a spaceship. An alien figure appears in the doorway and tells him "Tom Mason, it's about time." Tom seems to recognize the figure and tells it he had no idea it was so beautiful. Other Cast Co-Starring * Christie Burke as Elise * John H. Mayer as Waschak-cha'ab * Mark Gibbon as Scorch * Toby Levins as Soldier in Fog Uncredited * Jon Johnson as Jon * D Harlan Cutshall as Butterfield * Nico Amoroso as Nico * Zack Daniels as Zack * Unknown as Dornia Deaths * Scorch * Mira * Alexis Glass-Mason Significant Events *The reason behind the Espheni invading Earth is revealed. They needed "a life-sustaining planet close to a helium-rich moon." *Mira has been harnessed. She is later killed along with Lexi. *The 2nd Mass is invaded by skitterizing harnesses. *Elise is skitterized, along with many more 2nd Mass fighters, including Denny. *Sara returns to Chinatown. *Tom kills Scorch. *Lexi sacrifices herself to destroy the Eshpeni power core. As a result, all Espheni technology goes down. *Waschak-cha'ab returns with the Volm reinforcements. * Tom is lost in interplanetary space, where he meets a mysterious figure... *A new alien force has entered the Solar System in the aftermath of the Espheni Power Core destruction. *With all the Espheni technology including Harnesses, Mega Mechs and Beamers permanently down, the 2nd Mass plans to go on the offensive and strike back. Tom's History Lessons "It's not what happens to you; how you choose to react that matters." - Tom Mason paraphrasing Epictetus... Trivia and Outside References *"Shoot the Moon" is a phrase which basically means the same as: "All or nothing", maybe even "Go big or go home". **It can also mean to do the near-impossible. *Anne mentions finding the harnesses' "kryptonite", which is a material which generally has detrimental effects on Superman. Photos Alexis Tom Shoot the Moon Beamer S4.jpg 9182 ori.jpg Category:Season 4 Category:Episodes Category:Season 4 Episodes Category:Season Finale